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29 Dec 2014

As I learnt from Duane Sparks, author of the best-selling book 'Action Selling'. Research shows that it's more important to customers that the salesperson understand their needs than that they understand the salesperson's products and services. Customers have a strong need to feel understood. The mistake made by many salespeople is to assume that they know what the customer wants. Often the customer misleads the salesperson by stating what he is looking for. The salesperson would jump the gun and go straight to propose his products and services. This is a mistake. Even if the customer tells you what he wants, those may not be his needs. A want is a preference whereas a need is a necessity. We know that people don't just buy what they want, they must also buy what they need. A good salesperson will convert all wants into needs, for needs are stronger reasons to buy. Like you now want to upgrade your phone to iPhone 6. But if your existing iPhone 5S is still working fine, there is little need for you to buy the new phone. What if Apple now make the new iOS software can only work best with iPhone 6, you will feel the need to buy the new phone. That's what you have to do as a salesperson. Make all their wants become a need. All customers have only 7 needs: need to make more money, have less work, have more peace of mind, have more people like them, save time, go the next level and achieve their aspirations and dreams. As long as you can serve one of more of these 7 needs, you'll have the sale. The next secret in sales is about how you sell. In order to understand the customer's needs, the salesperson must ask questions. But he must earn the right to ask questions. A salesperson earns the right to ask questions by prefacing his questions with a logical reason why he is asking them. For instance: "So that I can recommend the best possible solution, I need to understand... and fill-in-the-blank." Finally, the 3rd secrets in sales is about how you sell successfully. Here how to phrase the questions is critical. If the salesperson asks the best questions, he will get the best answers from the customers. To find out more about how to ask the best questions so as to get the best sales, come for Successful Selling Strategies course on 13 Feb 2015 Friday 9 am to 12.30 pm. Better still, come also for 6 March 2015 Friday 2 to 5.30 pm "Challenger Sale Method". Register for both at 30% discount. For details of the courses, click here or see below.

Everyone wants to get more business, but with the economy still slow now, what can you do to pull ahead?

If you try to pull business away from your competitors, you have to be prepared for a price war. Another way is to poach the top salesperson or sales manager from your competitors with high salary. This is fast and furious, but it too starts a talent war.

How about going all out with aggressive marketing to get new prospects? This again puts you head on with your peers, who can always retaliate easily with even more marketing budget. The issue is how long you can last.

If the above does not work, what can you do? We believe that the solution lies in Successful Selling Strategies. This means that you must do things strategically and systematically. There are total 7 Successful Selling Strategies as follows:

28 Dec 2014

Too much heaven or hell is no good, so is management. All managers must avoid 2 deadly pitfalls or risk being redundant:1. Control - Too little control or too much control is a problem.Too little control would mean not having rules, but most often we see rules not followed and management never do much about it. For example, many companies have rules on working hours, but ask yourself how many management actually work to ensure that people come to work punctually? Many people have got used to being late, and the common excuse is they work late, so they can come late for work. Many don't know that this is causing some issues in teamwork, e.g. if some people are not here by 8.30 am, how am I going to get certain things done without them?So as a manager, make sure that you set the rules of the game. A good rules of the game is Values. Values like honesty and 'Go Extra Mile' must be laid down and followed by all staff. 2. Losing Their Voice: It's easy for people to lose their voice after working in the company. Initially new employees are out-spoken but after a while they got sucked into the system and dare not speak their minds. In fact many employees only dare to speak out only after they tendered their resignation.We know that it is very important for employees to speak their minds, otherwise what's the use of having them? Only with views aired can we then improve. ** If everyone has the same opinion, it means that either everyone is not thinking (just 'Yes men') or everyone is redundant!As a manager, you must provide the avenue for people to speak out. I suggest having a WIFLE session, which is simply "What I Feel Like Expressing". Another way is to follow what Li Shi Min, the greatest emperor of the mightily Tang Dynasty in China did 1,400 years ago. Li Shi Min actually got every official of "Rank 5 & above" to submit a critique of the government's policies. What ultimately emerged is a very strong government that is in tune with the people and created the "Golden Age of China".

21 Dec 2014

"You can make a great product, but you have to convince people that what you are selling is greater". CEO John Sculley, in his famous speech to Apple Computer staff in 1983. Sculley went on, "We are not selling computers, we are selling what people can do with computers. A tool for the mind, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is limitless". Indeed, in sales, if you just sell a product or service, you are very much limited in how much you can sell. But the moment you turn your selling into what your product or service can do for the customer, you can sell anything. There is simply no limit in your selling. Just look at the phenomenal sales of i-Pad, Xiaomi and Samsung smartphones and you will know what I'm talking about. The following are the 5 most common ways to be limitless in your selling:

The Money that Can be Made with What You Are Selling. As long as this money that people get is more than what they are paying, there is value in what you selling.

The Money that Will be Lost If People Don't Buy What You're Selling. This is more powerful than the above, as people are more afraid of losing than gaining.

Look into the Future - how your product or service can make people's future better.

The Headstart that People can Gain Over their Competitors. This is because in business, no one wants to be behind their competitors.

Pursue Your Dreams, as everyone has some dreams to pursue, for without dreams we will all perish.

Yes, the world has changed and since all of us have decided to do things differently this year, we need to change our goals. From now onwards there is simply NO LIMIT in what we are selling.

Limitless Selling starts from ourselves: where we burst all barriers and attain the unattainable. We will work out a plan to double and treble our sales in the next 12 to 24 months. All our products and services need to be revamped or re-packaged. Our solutions and services to customers will also be changed to no-limits. Plus, our customer support and technical people will have to be changed to give us limitless support.

This course, taken from high-level conferences done overseas, will change the way you look at sales forever. Come for this course if you have the guts.

Note: Even without PIC 60% cash back funding, this course is worth millions.

Power-packed Contents Include:

What is Limitless Selling and how does it differ from your current Sales Quota Selling

The Genghis Khan 6-Prong Way to Limitless Achievement

Three keys to Limitless: Right Understanding, Journey and Service to others

Dale Carnegie, the author of 1935's best-selling book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", taught us how to fish. Here's how he is able to fish for minutes and catch big catches. "When I go fishing, I don't think about what I want. I think about what they want. I don't bait the hook with chocolates and peanuts, I dangle a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and say, "Wouldn't you want to have that?" So taught Dale Carnegie. That's the approach you can take when fishing for customers. Get the prospect to say "Yes" immediately by using the Socratic method of keep on asking questions. Wouldn't you want to achieve more sales than ever with less work? How about getting your customers to come back to you over and over again? Can you win the price war without getting into a price war? Is it possible to do limitless selling, where the only limits to your sales is your ability to serve your customers? (Read here for articles on Limitless Selling). Smart sales managers know that there 5 ways that we can increase our sales. Even if you increase each way by a mere 10%, you'll get a combined leveraged increase of 61%. That's the magic of sales leverage, full details at here. By Sales Coach Andy Ng (see our powerpoints at here), whose newest courses are at here. Other courses are at www.asiatrainers.com/SeminarsList.php. Articles on sales include:

15 Dec 2014

The best managers are not those who are good in delegating work to others, nor are they the leaders that lead their organizations to winning battles. The best managers are more than that. The best managers make people better than themselves. They dare to take the challenge to challenge people. You see most people have a fixed idea of themselves and what they can do. But the best managers know that unless challenged, people will stay within their comfort limits. How do they do that?Well, the best managers teach people well. Not just teach them to do their job well, but how to become a better person. Because the best managers know that only when people become better will their jobs become easier. Other than teaching well, the best managers always take control of the situation. By this we don't mean the best managers are aggressive or push, but are able to assert and control the situation, especially control any meeting or conversation they have with their team members. But once the situation is under control, the best managers do not dominate the situation but give credit and control to the people. That's why their people feel that the best managers are so empowering and they would even die for them.If you too want to know how to be an effective manager and leader, come for this last course for the year on 30 December 2014 Tuesday 9 am to 5 pm. For details, click here. Related articles:

13 Dec 2014

Most sales trainers centred on one core teaching: you must understand customers' needs and sell them solutions to their needs. Many sales training in Singapore and Asia teach people to ask better questions, like probing questions, financial questions, hypothetical questions, follow-up questions and open-ended questions so as to get the sale. The idea is that if we just dig deep enough, we will find gold. This sounds very good, but does it work in real life? Do people buy based on needs? What if customers don't know what they need? Like before Apple launched iPad in 2010, you cannot get anywhere if you ask questions on what type of tablet they need. To me, the customer's single greatest need is to figure out exactly what they need. So a better sales technique is to tell customers what they need.Sales champions win not by understanding their customers' needs but by knowing customers' needs better than the customers themselves. So such sales champions (called Sales Challengers), instead of asking people questions, teach people instead. This is because customers really want to be taught in the first place. Even if they know what they want, they may not know the way forward: how to anticipate future needs. This is where you as the sales expert comes in. You know your product and the future needs of your product better than anyone, that's why you must teach. In short, the more you teach, the more the customer knows. The more the customer knows, the greater will be his needs. And that's a better way to sell than asking questions. To know more about the new Challenger Sale Method, come for this course on 6 March 2015 Friday 9 am to 12.30 pm. Details are here atAsia Trainers. Related articles on sales:

9 Dec 2014

According
to best-selling book "The Challenger Sale" author Matthew Dixon, most
salespeople are very hard-working, some are relationship builders and the rest
are passive problem solvers. But few of them are able to out-perform over a
sustained period. (You can read a 5-minute summary of his book at here)

As we
know, pure consultative selling based on relationship building does not work
anymore for large sales, complex sales and sales to MNCs. This is because of
corporate governance. Other than that, most buyers now little power for the
actual decision-making is vested in a committee that does not even want to see
the salesperson.

Those
that were trained in consultative selling often end up providing free service to
their prospects as they lose control of the sales situation and the prospect end
up buying from another vendor.

The
hardworking salespeople do close many sales, but they often get burnt out
because they worked too hard and closing rates are below
expectations.

There
must be a better method. Based on several thousands of researched done over 5
years, Mathew Dixon realized that the most effective sales method must to be to
take control of the sales situation. In
this Challenger Sale Method, you perform the 3Ts:
Teach, Tailor your presentation and Take Control of the conversation.

Instead
of waiting for prospect to come back to you, you ask for the
sale. You offer an Irresistible Offer and give them a
deadline to respond. You are assertive but not
aggressive, as your pushing is to serve the prospect's interest, not to
hit your own targets. Other than that, you perform such tasks with high
confidence that the prospect just have to buy from you. If the above is
what you're looking for, come for this newest course Challenger Sale Method on 6 March 2015 Friday 2 to 5.30 pm. Limited seats left, and you can get 49% off
the fees when you register 5 pax. Reply to this email or text to Idah at
8201-4347 or call 6225-1784
now. (Note: you can use our QTC Quaterly $500 Training Credit to offset 50% of your course fees).

We know that sales techniques that work in small sales will not work in large, complex sales. Purchasing today has gone through a major revolution where buyers now have more control over sellers.

Traditional selling based on Relationships do not work because buyers now demand more than relationships. Consultative Selling based on problem solving, although is working, is not enough. Bosses today want their sales team to not only serve customers, but also bring in sales aggressively. There must be a new way to sell.

Here comes The Challenger Sales method. Pioneered by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, this revolutionary method takes control back from the customer. If you too want to win more sales, you need to take back control. Use this Challenger Sales method. It has proven to work for over 10,000 companies.

Power-packed Contents Include:

The 5 Types of Salespeople:The Hard Worker, The Relationship Builder, The Lone Wolf, The Reactive Problem Solver and The Challenger

Quality time is simply giving someone your undivided attention. It is a very obvious expression of love and no one in this world dislikes it. Quality time need not be quantity time, and Ken Blanchand said in the "One Minute Manager" book, all it takes is an EXTRA MINUTE of your time and that's quality time. When your staff talks to you, do you listen with your computer screen on?

Focused Attention is another aspect of Quality Time. It is not we have to spend our time together moments gazing into each other's eyes. It means we are doing something together and that we are giving our full attention to each other. Incidentally, the activity that we do is not important. What's important is the feeling of comradeship or teamwork.

The dialect of the language of Quality Time is Quality Conversation, that is sympathetic dialogue where people share their experiences, thoughts and feelings in a friendly, non-judgemental context. It is difficult for a manager to not judge every time the staff told him his problem. What the manager may not realize that if your staff tells you his problem, it means that he trusts you to not use his weakness against him, like give him a poor performance evaluation later on.

In short, Quality Conversion is focused on Hearing whereas Words of Affirmation (the first love language) is about Saying.

Here's what you can do to give Quality Time to your staff:

Maintain good eye contact throughout the whole conversation

Never interrupt, not even offer drinks or go the bath room

Listen for Feelings. What emotion is my staff experiencing now? Confirm it by asking questions like, "It sounds to me that you are feeling disappointed because I did not give you ___"

Observe body language. Clenched fists, fidgeting hands, furrowed brows and uneasy eye movements are hints that the staff is tense and needs help

Watch out for Self-revelation. Many people in the workplace are trained not to express their honest thoughts and feelings and to behave professionally and put on a poker face. When you find your staff showing emotions that you seldom see, that's a true revelation and not an act

At the beginning of the day, show concern to your staff by asking them questions outside of work. It can be as mundane as "How's the traffic jam this morning?" Be careful not to ask a question about work immediately after this show of concern for the staff will interpret your act of concern as fake

At the end of the day, show your appreciation by saying, "Thanks for your contributions today, see you tomorrow!"

Organize team-building games and activities that bond people

At the end of the day, our job as a manager is not to add years to peoples' lives but to add life to peoples' years. Giving people Quality Time is definitely an expression of true love. This investment will yield you dividends for years to come, for you will have a highly committed and cohesive team. Isn't this the utopia that all managers dream of?

6 Dec 2014

From Dr Gary Chapman's best selling book "The Five Love Languages", many people tried to apply this relationship love concept in the workplace. While many have met with success, some have found the ideas too complex to transfer them to the workplace effectively. At Asia Trainers, we have, since 2006 in management and leadership courses, applied such concepts successfully. Chapman's 5 Love Languages are as follows:

Words of Affirmation

Quality Time

Acts of Service

Gifts

Touch

Chapman's book claims that this list of five love languages is exhaustive but we should not use the love languages that they like the most but rather the love languages that their loved ones can receive. So in the workplace, which love language you use would depend on who you are dealing with. Today I shall only talk about the first love language: Words of Affirmation. Come back to our blog at www.andyngtrainer.blogspot.sg for the remaining 5 love languages.

Power of Words of Affirmation

Mark Twain claimed that he could live for 2 months on a good compliment. If we take Twain literally, 6 compliments a year or once every 2 months would be the level to start with. Words of Affirmation include compliments, acknowledgements, validation and appreciation.

Since words of affirmation is a language, its dialect is Encouraging Words. The word 'encourage' means 'to inspire courage'. Because people in the workplace have areas in which we feel insecure, this lack of courage often hinders us from accomplishing the results that the company has assigned us to. Like a salesperson may lack technical knowledge, so he feels insecure if he were being challenged by a customer. If instead of criticising him, we encourage him to do more, such encouragement will expose his level of potential in sales.

As we know, many people have more potential than we will ever develop. What holds us back is often a lack of courage, not abilities.

Another dialect of Words of Affirmation is Kind Words. Kind words is not just the words we say, but also the way we say them. Humble Words is another dialect. The way your boss expresses his instructions convey either love or hate. If he gives you guidance, like 'Could you make that good for the customer's urgent order?', you feel affirmed. But if he gives you ultimatums like "Could we ever have customer's urgent order met?", it is not love.

Notice that when you make a request of your staff, you are affirming his abilities and attitudes. You are indicating that he can do more than what he is doing now. But when you make demands, you take away the affirmation and belittle your staff.

You can also give indirect words of affirmation, that is, saying positive things about your colleague when he is not present. Eventually someone will tell your colleague about this, and he will feel happier than you were to praise him directly. Other than that, you can also affirm him in front of others when he is not present.

Finally, you can speak words of affirmation by listing the good things about your staff.

In short, love languages make people feel empowered, motivated and raise their morale. Here's a list of exercises for you to do. For the next one week, do these 5 things:

Keep a written record of all the words of affirmation that you give your colleagues each day

Set a goal to give your colleague a different compliment each for one month. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a compliment a day will keep the counsellor away.

As you watch your staff perform their work, catch them doing things right and praise them unexpectedly

Write an appreciation letter, whatsapp message, SMS, email or note to your staff and give or send it quietly or without fanfare. Written words have the power to appear after many years of writing.

Compliment your staff in front of your boss, his friends and outsiders.

By Andy Ng of Asia Trainers, list of courses at here. Related articles:

3 Dec 2014

Often during our sales courses people ask me what's the number one skill of a successful salesperson. It must be assertiveness.

Assertiveness is not to be confused with aggressiveness. When you push your customer to buy based on your own reason (like you have to hit your target), you are aggressive. But when you push your customer to buy because it is in the customer's interest to buy, you are assertive.

There are 3 steps to be assertive in your selling:

Step 1: Teach

Here you teach your prospect not just about your product's features and benefits but challenge his assumptions. You also teach him how to take action base on what he desires.

Your teaching must offer an unique perspective and must be a two-way communication. That means asking questions and listening

Step 2: Tailor

After the prospect is taught on what is the right way to do things, you tailor what you have to what he desires. It means that you have to adjust your proposal and contextualize it to his needs. All these tailoring must lead to financial gains for the customer

Step 3: Take Control of the Conversation

Here you take control of the conversation by asking for the sale. You are comfortable discussing about money and you dare to pressurize the prospect to make a decision NOW. Various tactics including scarcity, scare and fear of loss are used. The point is you are pushing the prospect to buy not because you are desperate, but because you believe so much in what you are selling is good to the prospect that you cannot see yourself to be soft. We call this Assertive Selling.

So if you too want to close more sales and never end up with 'We'll contact you in due course" answer from the prospect, you need to be tough but not terrible. Be assertive and you'll get the sale. Related articles:

2 Dec 2014

One of the most crucial job of a sales manager is to ensure that the business has a constant supply of new leads or new clients. This is because we know that there is a natural attrition rate of 20% every year, that is, 20% customers going away every year even if we do nothing wrong. Chasing new business is often thought of by many as something to be done by marketeers and bosses. In reality, getting new business is easy. But it is even easier not to get any new business. This means we get our customers to do the selling for us, or use referrals. You see, the difference between a promotion and a business is simple - when you have to go out and find yourself another customer, what you have is a ongoing marketing promotion, not a business. A business is where you buy a customer and then sell them many things over and over again, that is, you have an ongoing income stream. How to have an instant Referral System? There are 5 elements:

Great Product or Service. Not just great packaging or attractive pricing, but great product. Like iPhone 6, not Note 4.

Customer Contact. You need to be in constant contact with your customers, for only when there is contact will there be action. The best way to contact your customers regularly is to support them after the sale process

Good Reason to Refer People to You. One of the best reasons is 'what's in it for me?' How does referring business to you help your customer? Do they get better deals, or more committed quality service from you?

Incentives. Even with good reason, people still don't take action, because the push must come from benefits. Incentives that attract customers to give referrals to you could be free gift or service, discount or exclusive deals

Easy Way. Finally people need to have an easy way to give you referrals. The easiest way is to build giving referrals into your sales process. Like when they just bought from you, they are given a discount voucher that is transferable.

If you too want to have an ongoing sales, you need a Sales Success System.

SALES SUCCESS SYSTEM

Date: 18 Dec 2014 Thu 9 am to 5 pm

At: The Plaza 02-301, 7500A Beach Rd

Fee: $398 each, $299 each for 2 & above (33% discount)

The world no. 1 Salesperson (per Guiness book of Records) Joe Girard said that sales success is about having a system. And Sales System is beyond setting sales targets and incentive structure.

A Good Sales System has 3 elements:1. It powers ordinary salespeople to produce extra-ordinary results; 2. It brings in a steady flow of clients without spending an extra cent; 3. It delivers consistent high value to clients and maximum profits for your company

Power-packed Contents Include:

ACT 5-Ways Leverage to Increase Sales by 61.1%

Top 15 Strategies to Get More Prospects cheaply

3-Way Prospecting: Target-Offer-Copy

Your Unique Selling Proposition

Coming up with Offers that Win your target market over

Benefits & Call for Action, especially PS

Words & Phrases that Attract not Repel

Jamie Smart Irresistible Influence system

Influence and Persuasion with Questions and Probing

Objection Overcoming system

Setting up Your Referral System

Phone-Mail-Phone 7 Steps System

Networking System

Direct e-Mail, Snail Mail and Card System

Alliance System

Top 20 Ways to Get Repeat Business

Ladder of Loyalty to build up Raving Fans

Retrieving Lost Clients

At the end of the course, you will have set up a good sales system for all salespeople to follow. Related articles:

We all work primarily to earn income. Other than that, work fulfils additional needs like give us status, identity, power, approval of others, social interaction and the simple satisfaction of keeping busy. The problem is that while we work to accomplish our goals, we seldom find value in the process of working itself. In our training courses like How to Be a Better Manager, How to Be a Great Boss and Effective Selling Skills, many people have come to the point where they question the value of what they have been doing. They asked if work has deepened their sense of meaning and purpose. Even for people who work for a cause they believe in, or they are working on their passions, ultimately the same pattern persists. Although we may work with much more energy and commitment, we look past the actual activity of working to its results. Although we believe in what we do, we are focused on the results, hitting KPIs and earning a living. In other words, we do not satisfy our own needs and wants from work. So we look to outside of work (like join volunteer groups, charity, church etc) to seek happiness and end up treating work as escapism. There must be a better way of working. A newer way of looking at work so that at the end of the day, we find work is a reward by itself, not a way to rewards. The way is to treat work as not to serve our own needs but to serve others. Many people are more happy when they work not for themselves but for others. Like when you help a charity to clean up its building, you find it more rewarding than cleaning up your own office. This is because Service to Others is the Highest Purpose. Whether you are a boss, manager, salesperson, technician, professional, administrative or support personnel, we need to adopt the above right way towards work. In this course How to Be a Great Boss, we teach you how you can serve your team without spoiling them. Techniques on how to be tough but not terrible, and how to soften your hard message will also be covered. This course is incomplete by itself: you need to enrol your team for a course for them: High Contribution Employees. Details of the courses are found in this link and at our site www.asiatrainers.com/SeminarsList.php. Other articles: